In the January 25, 2006 parliamentary election, the party lost its majority in the Palestinian parliament to Hamas, and resigned all cabinet positions, instead of assuming the role as the main opposition party. Fatah's Strength is estimated at 6,000-8,000 Fighters with 45- 300 Politicians
The full name of the movement is حركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني ḥarakat al-taḥrīr al-waṭanī al-filasṭīnī, meaning the "Palestinian National Liberation Movement". From this was crafted the reverse acronym Fatḥ (or Fatah), meaning "opening", "conquering", or "victory". The word Fatah is used in religious discourse to signify the Islamic expansion in the first centuries of Islamic history—as in Fath al-Sham, the "opening of the Levant" -- and so has positive connotations for Muslims. The term "Fatah" also has religious significance in that it is the name of the 48th sura, or chapter, of the Qu'ran, which according to major Muslim commentators details the story of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. During the peaceful two years after the Hudaybiyyah treaty, many converted to Islam increasing the strength of the Muslim side. It was the breach of this treaty by Muhammad that triggered the conquest of Mecca. This Islamic precedent was cited by Yasser Arafat as justification for his signing the Oslo Accords with Israel.
Fatah's first major guerrilla attack came on January 3, 1965, when they attempted to sabotage the Israeli National Water Carrier, which had recently started operation and diverted vast amounts of water from the Jordan River which mostly bordered Jordan. The attack was repelled by the Israeli Security Forces.
Fatah became the dominant force in Palestinian politics after the Six-Day War in 1967. It dealt the coup de grâce to the pre-Baathist Arab nationalism that had inspired George Habash's Arab Nationalist Movement, the former dominant mainly Palestinian political party.
From the beginning the armed struggle, as manifested in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and the military role of Palestinian fighters under the leadership of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, was central to Fatah's ideology of liberating Palestine by a Palestinian armed struggle.
In 1970, the Jordanian government moved to regain control over its territory, and the next day, King Hussein declared martial law.
In the 1960s and the 1970s, Fatah provided training to a wide range of European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African militant and insurgent groups, and carried out numerous attacks against Israeli targets in Western Europe and the Middle East during the 1970s. Some militant groups that affiliated themselves to Fatah, and some of the fedayeen within Fatah itself, carried out civilian plane hijackings and terrorist attacks, attributing them to Black September, Abu Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council, Abu Musa's group, the PFLP, and the PFLP-GC. Fatah received weapons, explosives and training from the USSR and some Communist regimes of East European states. The People's Republic of China also provided munitions.
Phalangist forces killed twenty-six Fatah trainees on a bus in April 1975, marking the official start of the 15 year long Lebanese civil war. Later that year, an alliance of Christian militias overran the Palestinian refugee camp of Quarantina. The PLO and LNM retaliated by attacking the town of Damour, a Phalangist stronghold. Over 330 people were killed and many more wounded. Arafat and Abu Jihad blamed themselves for not successfully organizing a rescue effort. In response, the IDF launched Operation Litani three days later, with the goal of taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The IDF achieved this goal, and Fatah withdrew to the north into Beirut.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in 1982. Beirut was soon besieged and bombarded by the IDF; which includes both PLO and non-PLO factions, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both listed as terrorist organizations in the West.
Fatah endorsed Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian presidential election of 2005.
In 2005, Hamas won in nearly all the municipalities it contested. Political analyst Salah Abdel-Shafi told BBC about the difficulties of Fatah leadership: "I think it's very, very serious - it's becoming obvious that they can't agree on anything." Fatah is "widely seen as being in desperate need of reform", as "the PA's performance has been a story of corruption and incompetence - and Fatah has been tainted."
There have been numerous other expressions of discontent within Fatah, which is just holding its first general congress in two decades. Because of this, the movement remains largely dominated by aging cadres from the pre-Oslo area of Palestinian politics. Several of them gained their positions thanks to personal followings or support from Arafat, who balanced above the different factions, and the era after his death in 2004 has seen increased infighting among these groups, who jockey for influence over future development, the political line, funds, and constituencies. The prospect of Abbas leaving power in the coming years has also exacerbated tensions.
There have been no significant overt splits within the older generation of Fatah politicians since the 1980s, however. One founding member, Faruq al-Qaddumi (Abu Lutf), continues to openly oppose the post-Oslo arrangements and has intensified his campaign for a more hardline position from exile in Tunis. Since Arafat's death, he is formally head of Fatah's political bureau and chairman, but his actual political following within Fatah appears limited. He has at times openly challenged the legitimacy of Abbas and harshly criticized both him and Mohammed Dahlan, but despite threats to splinter the movement, he remains in his position, and his challenges have so far come to nothing. Another influential veteran, Hani al-Hassan, has also openly criticized the present leadership. Fatah's internal conflicts have also, due to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, merged with the turf wars between different PA security services, e.g. a longstanding rivalry between the West Bank (Jibril Rajoub) and Gaza (Muhammad Dahlan) branches of the powerful Preventive Security Service. Foreign backing for different factions contribute to conflict, e.g. with the USA generally seen as supportive of Abbas's overall leadership and of Dahlan's security influence, and Syria alleged to promote Faruq al-Qaddumi's challenge to the present leadership. The younger generations of Fatah, especially within the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, have been more prone to splits, and a number of lesser networks in Gaza and the West Bank have established themselves as either independent organizations or joined Hamas. However, such overt breaks with the movement have still been rather uncommon, despite numerous rivalries inside and between competing local Fatah groups.
The internal dissension was immediately obvious. Saudi King Abdullah told Fatah delegates meeting in Bethlehem that divisions among the Palestinians were more damaging to their cause of an independent state than the Israeli "enemy."
Fatah delegates resolved not to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks until preconditions were met. Among the 14 preconditions, included the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, freezing all Israeli settlement construction, and lifting the Gaza blockade.
Some 400 Fatah members from the Gaza Strip were unable to attend the conference in Bethlehem after Hamas barred them from traveling to the West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak described the adopted Fatah platform as not very promising. However, he added that there was no other way but to sit down and strike a deal, calling on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations.
Officials on the third day of the Fatah convention in Bethlehem unanimously accepted the proposal put forth by the chairman of the Araft Institute stating that Israel had been behind the "assassination" of the late Palestinian Authority Chairman and affirmed Fatah's request for international aid to probe the issue. Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel, Danny Ayalon, said the conference was a "serious blow to peace" and "was another lost opportunity for the Palestinian leadership to adopt moderate views."
Fadwa Barghouti, the wife of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in Israel for his role "in terrorist attacks" in Israel during the Second Intifada, was one of the representatives elected to the Fatah Central Council.
Fatah has since its inception created, led or sponsored a number of armed groups and militias, some of which have had an official standing as the movement's armed wing, and some of which have not been publicly or even internally recognized as such. The group has also dominated various PLO and Palestinian Authority forces and security services which were/are not officially tied to Fatah, but in practice have served as wholly pro-Fatah armed units, and been staffed largely by members. The original name for Fatah's armed wing was al-Assifa (The Storm), and this was also the name Fatah first used in its communiques, trying for some time to conceal its identity. This name has since been applied more generally to Fatah armed forces, and does not correspond to a single unit today. Other militant groups associated with Fatah include:
* Force 17 - Force 17 was created by Yassir Arafat, and plays a role akin to the Presidential Guard for senior Fatah leaders, but it has also carried out other terrorism related assignments.
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* Category:Palestine Liberation Organization Category:Palestinian political parties Category:Socialist International Category:Palestinian militant groups Category:Organizations formerly designated as terrorist Category:Political parties established in 1954 Category:Palestinian terrorism Category:Palestinian nationalism Category:Israeli–Palestinian conflict
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